Transition Year

What is Transition Year?

The Transition Year Programme promotes the personal, social, vocational and educational development of students and prepares them for their role as autonomous, participative and responsible members of society (Transition Year Guidelines, 1994, Department of Education).

It is a unique one year programme for students who have completed the Junior Certificate. It provides a bridge to enable them to make the transition from the more dependent type of learning associated with the Junior Certificate to the more independent learning environment associated with the Senior cycle. It encourages personal and social development and recognises the need for students to grow in independence.

Transition Year fosters academic achievement as students prepare for a Leaving Certificate programme, further study and adult and working life. It encourages the development of a wide range of transferable critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

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TY Programmes Night_2022

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the purpose of the Transition Year Programme?

To promote maturity:

Maturity in studies by making students more self-directed learners through the development of general, technical and academic skills
Maturity in relation to work and careers by developing work-related skills
Personal maturity by providing opportunities to develop communication skills, self-confidence and a sense of responsibility
Social maturity by developing greater ‘people’ skills and more awareness of the world outside school
Maturity that will help the student make a more informed choice of subject for their Leaving Certificate studies

Is Transition Year suited to all students?

With its emphasis on development and maturity, all young people can benefit from the programme. Transition Year in particular, can allow for the development of an individual’s multiple intelligences-linguistic, logico-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.

The Transition Year programme can also develop key skills for the 21st century such as the three T’s: thinking, teamwork and technology.

Message from the Co-Ordinator:

"The aim of our Transition Year Programme is to give students opportunities to discover and develop their individual gifts and strengths, to become more independent and to experience a year where the emphasis will be on cultivating individual responsibility for study and self-directed work. Transition Year offers students an opportunity to develop general, technical and academic skills, and to mature and develop without the pressure of an examination. Students get the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas and can make more informed choices about the kind of Leaving Certificate programme they want to follow after the Transition Year."

The programme aims also to encourage the development of thinking, caring, articulate and self-confident people. Transition year offers students the opportunity to develop new skills and talents and to consolidate existing interests. Students not only develop academically but also socially and personally during TY.

Students still study the core subjects of English, Gaeilge and Mathematics but also get lessons in the subjects they will study at Leaving Certificate level. Students believe that this can make the process of choosing Leaving Certificate subjects an easier and better informed process. There is continuous assessment of students throughout the year and project work is a vital component of all subjects. Full and active participation in Transition year also leads to better performance in the Leaving Certificate.

Parents should actively encourage their children to participate fully and positively throughout the whole of Transition Year and to avail of the numerous opportunities offered by this unique programme. Parents therefore have a vital role in ensuring that their son/daughter gains the maximum benefit from a year that will reap rewards for them well into their future lives.

What are the subjects offered to Transition Year Students?

What are the activities offered to students?

Some of the Activities offered in Transition Year in Coláiste na Trócaire:

Gaisce Presidents Award
Self-Defence Classes
First Aid Classes
Trip to Outdoor Centre for Team building Skills
Swimming Lessons & Life Saving
IC3 Computer Classes & Exams
Driving Instruction & Lessons
Cycling & Hiking Activities
Cooking Classes
Safe Food for Life Exam
English Drama & Poetry Workshop
Irish Dancing Classes
Coaching and Refereeing Course
Art Lino Printing
Art Therapy Classes
Paired Reading with 1st Year Students
Limerick Youth Service Talk
Life Saver Road Safety Project & Day
Open Days
Deportment and Etiquette Workshop
Retreat Day
Law Education Course
Involvement in Open Night for Incoming First Years
CV Building
Involvement in Organisation of Christmas School Play
Ice skating
Success Skills
Community Work
All students set up own MINI -COMPANY
Involvement in Enterprise Activities
Science Taster with Primary School Students
Radio Show Interviews

And MANY MANY MORE…………

Why I chose to do Transition Year

There were many and varied reasons as to why the students chose to undertake the programme:

‘…I wanted to explore my career options. I didn’t know what subjects to pick…I will never regret it.’
‘the overall spirit of TY’
‘my friends did it…to mature…the experience’
‘To learn new skills. It gives us a chance to mature. More time to pick what subjects to do for the Leaving Cert.’
‘To learn more about what I want to work as. To learn more about my interests.’
‘It is really good fun…I would be fairly young doing the Leaving Cert if I didn’t do TY.’

Activities and New Subjects

By Christmas time, the students had recorded a list of activities and new subjects that they had participated in during the first term:

‘We go swimming every Thursday.’
‘We have done swimming, dance classes, Chinese, Junior Achievers.’
‘On Monday from 10.00 to 12.00, we learn Chinese. Our teacher is Zhang Gowei but we can call him William. He is from a small town outside Beijing.’
‘In the first couple of months of TY, I have learned some basic life-saving skills in swimming, some basic Chinese words, that I would like to work in the finance sector, some self-defence techniques and some new dance moves.’
‘It (Chinese) is a good experience. We are learning the basics and culture.’
‘We went swimming every Thursday for 13 weeks in Askeaton. Some Laugh’
‘We did self-defence.’
‘For our retreat, we walked all the way to Knockfierna and back.’
‘We did bag-packing for three days in a row in Tesco, Newcastlewest, to raise money for trips for TY.’
‘Went ice-skating and to the crescent afterwards.’

Trip to Delphi:

The trip to Delphi was an integral part of the early days of TY as it helped the students to develop a bond. Delphi is a resort that provides a range of activities to groups. It is located along the Galway/Mayo border. The students’ reports showed that they took place in a variety of activities:
‘In the second week of Transition Year, we went to Delphi, an activity centre in Connemara, Galway. We went cliff-diving (and) orienteering. We had an unreal time.’
‘We went to Delphi. It was good. There were four to a room. It was a good laugh. My favourite part was the orienteering.’
‘We went coast-steering off cliffs in the sea.’
‘It made us all work as a team and we had good craic.’
‘I thought the trip to Delphi was excellent as us TYs got to do something together outside of school. The best thing about the trip was the craic we had in the accommodation and the activities we did when we were there, like orienteering and coasteering. The bad things with Delphi are the giant midgets and there is no phone signal at all! It is a proper break from society.’
‘Went to Delphi, did cool activities: high robes, cliff-diving and stayed overnight.’

What work experience do TY students do?

The TY students undertook a period of work experience and wrote of their time as follows:

‘I did my work experience in the fire station in Rathkeale. I chose to go there because I thought that being a fireman would be interesting and that I would learn a lot about what is involved in this kind of job. At the end of the week, we got a cert on First Aid, a cert of manual handling, a cert on the use of a fire extinguisher and a cert for attending a fire safety course.’
‘I made presses and drawers and sanded timber and swept the floor.’
‘I went to a car sales. While there I worked in the garage.’
‘I worked in a hair and beauty salon. I chose to work in a hair and beauty salon because I’ve a huge interest in hairdressing and beauty therapy. I wrapped and ribboned Christmas sets and gifts, filled out Christmas cards, took photos of products, sets, pricelists and vouchers and uploaded them online. I learned how to do a manicure professionally.’
‘I chose teaching because I always admired teachers and always used to try to teach my brother and sister different things. On the first day I came in I was greeted by smiles and children screaming “there’s a new teacher!” I was surprised at how much they warmed to me.’
‘(In the fire station), I learned how to treat an injured person by putting them in a sling. There was nothing I didn’t like about my week of work experience. Overall, it was a very interesting and fun week. This helped me figure out that I like to be part of a team.’

Coláiste na Trócaire wishes to thank all the various employers and businesses who are so kind in welcoming our students.

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